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AN 


ADDRESS 


THE COMMENCEMENT 


OF THE 


GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 


PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH 


Ginitey States. 


HELD IN ST. JOHN’S CHAPEL, IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK, ON THE 26th DAY OF 
JUNE, 1829. 


BY WILLIAM WHITE, D. D. 
BISHOP OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
IB 
PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE TRUSTEES. 
—-SHo— 
NEW-YORK: 


PRINTED AT THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL PRESS, 
No. 8 Rector-Street, 


1829. 


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AN ADDRESS. 


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Brethren, the Trustees of the Seminary ; 


On this Eighth Anniversary of your being assembled, your 
President has the honour of taking his seat among you the 
eighth time ; having on every preceding occasion, anticipated, 
that in future his non-attendance would be held excusable, on 
account of his advanced age. That he has still yielded to 
solicitations to be again present at your deliberations, is perhaps 
partly owing to the circumstance, that at the period of the 
organization of the Institution, having thought with the few, 
who favoured the encouraging of the establishment of as many 
seminaries as there"may be diocesses, competent. to the founding 
and the supporting of them, and having yielded to the then 
almost universal opinion in favour of a General Seminary, with 
the pledge of his zealous endeavours towards the promoting of 
its success, he has thought it the more incumbent on him to 
avoid whatever may be considered as a lessening of the interest 
taken by him, im the concerns of the Institution. 


Brethren, the Professors ; 


This is the fifth time of the present speaker’s"complying with 
your request, of making the Anniversary Address to the graduates 
of the Institution. The distinction is to be ascribed to the 
nearness of residence, and to the accommodations for inter- 
mediate travelling : since otherwise, so repeated offers and ac- 
ceptances of your invitations, would countenance a charge of 
the withholding of due attention to the brethren generally in the 
Episcopacy. | 

As well to the Trustees as to the Professors, the present is a 
suitable opportunity of congratulations on account of the munifi- 


ey, 


cent bequest to the Institution of the lately deceased Frederick 
Kohne, Esq., of Philadelphia. This accession of means, al- 
though not yet in possession, cannot fail, when obtained, to 
increase confidence in the stability of the Seminary ; while it 
may also be expected of the liberality displayed, that it will give 
life to exertions for the meeting of intermediate demands. 


Our Young Brethren, the Graduates : 


In an address to your predecessors, of the second year before 
the present, the subject was the dangers incident to the begin- 
nings of their ministry. The address of the succeeding year 
took up the last of the intimated dangers, and developed it in an 
extent which seemed called for by the existing circumstances of 
our church. It is now proposed to revert to the general sub- 
ject, and to contract the view of it to the single point of the ex- 
ercises of the pulpit ; to be, perhaps, encountered in that de- 
partment of your future calling. 

A considerable danger to which you may be exposed, is, on 
the one hand, perhaps from an honest zeal for the great truths 
of the Christian revelation, of not being sufficiently regardful of 
their great end, in the cultivation of Christian morals ; and on 
the other hand, of the profession of a high regard for Christian 
morals, in too slight a connexion with Christian doctrine. The 
former of these errors, manifests a low estimate of that great 
proportion of Holy Writ, of which the object is the vesting of us 
with endowments, defined to have their source in the gracious 
influences of the Spirit of God, yet substantially a moral culti- 
vation of the mind, with the effect of it on all the branches of 
human action. The latter error, however extensive may be the 
theory of morals inculcated, although there is commonly defal- 
cation in this respect, is fundamentally wanting in the circum- 
stance, that there is put out of view the condition of man as a 
sinner. His deteriorated nature, the need in which he lies of a 
renewal of it through the agency of divine grace, the mean of 
access to a righteous God, on the ground of the atoning merits of 
a Redeemer ; these, and their kindred points, are so diffused over 


. ey 
the body of the Christian system, that without them the morals 
of the gospel would be inoperative. However unrivalled their 
excellence, they would not be adequate to the necessities of 
frail and sinful men. | 

In the first of the five Addresses referred to, there was a dis- 
cussion of this subject to a considerable extent. It is not eligi- 
ble to go over the same ground at present, but there shall be 
a few remarks corroborative of what was before delivered. | 

It is beyond all reasonable doubt that there have been a pro- 
portion of our clergy who have erred on the extreme of incul- 
cating moral precept in too slight a connexion with Christian 
doctrine and motive, to the great injury of their flocks, and to the 
giving of fair ground, for the entertaining of doubts as to their 
being themselves possessed of the Christian character. But 
while the candidate is guarded against this, let him be equally 
cautious of making the charge when it may prove to be a slan- 
der; and of making it at all, unless under a call of duty, espe- 
cially when the charge may have a selfish bearing on interfering 
interests and prospects. 

There is a motive to this forbearance, not only in moral ob- 
hgation generally, but in the various senses attached to the com- 
mendation of Evangelical preaching, according to the different 
theories with which the term has become associated. That when 
the church of England reformed from Popery, she interwove 
the doctrines of grace with all her institutions, cannot plausibly 
be denied ; when there ensued a large secession from her com- 
munion, one of the effects distinguishing it, was the superadd-. 
ing of some points of mere metaphysics, not contemplated by 
the reformers. The consequence is, as well in this country as. 
in England, that there have been a proportion of Divines who. 
conscientiously entertain the opinion, that there cannot be a, 
preaching of the doctrines of grace, independently on that ex- 
_ traneous matter. 

In theories as diverse as possible from the one mentioned, 
thereare those whoacknowledge no signs of Evangelical preach- 
ing, except as it tends to agitate the feelings of our animal me- 
chanism, having no necessary connexion with the gracious af- 


( O 
fections known in Scripture as a new creation, and a vesting 
with properties which are a renewal of the image in which our 
race was originally created; but spending their forces in a va- 
riety of extravagancies, as diverse from one another as from 
scriptural and rational devotion. Of this spurious spirituality, 
there is a diversity of grades and shapes. 

For these reasons it is not always easy to ascertain the sense 
‘intended to be attached to the term in question. What is worse, 
it is sometimes used for the casting of unmerited reproach, and 
with a view to very unworthy purposes, especially when it is so 
applied as to cover an agency in party, it will not be checked by 
any dictates of moral obligation. 

The next danger of which you shall be cautioned, is that of 
an immoderate love of popularity, and of unjustifiable methods 
of attaining to it; the evil being now contemplated, only in re- 
lation to the exercises of the pulpit. 

Let not this be misunderstood. Popular edification being the 
object of such addresses, it follows, that all reasonable means of 
rendering them acceptable to the hearer, and even of concilia- 
ting their good will to the deliverer, with a view to the other ob- 
ject, is not only allowable, but a duty. It may be aimed at, 
however, to the prejudice of gospel truth. But this out of the 
question ; the present view shall ke limited to the more usual ex- 
pedients for the rising to popularity, which are eloquence and 
elocution : the former being here considered asexpressive of the 
matter of a discourse, andthe latter as limited to the manner of 
the delivery of it. 

There is not intended a disparagement of talents, which have 
always exercised a mighty influence over human affairs. _ It is 
truly remarked in an apochryphal Book of Scripture—“ an 
eloquent man is known far and near ;” and it is immediately 
added by the sagacious author, as if aware of the abuses incident 
to his subject—“ but a man of understanding knoweth when he 
slippeth.” The talent having been so often made the instrument 
of mischievous designs, it cannot improperly be rescued from 
such perversion, and directed to the glory of the great Being 
who furnishes the gift, and clothes it with such efficiency. 


a) 

Should there be poured from the pulpit a blaze of eloquence ; 
even if not of the same grade with that of a Demosthenes or a 
Tully ; yet, in the eye of criticism of the same character ; there 
can be no reason for withholding from the Christian church, 
what has been seen to be often salutary in the concerns of states. 
But it will not be amiss, to apply to the present subject, what a 
Roman poet has counselled in reference to an epic poem— 
“ sumite materiam, vestris qui scribitis equam viribus.”. When 
a speaker indulges himself in an ebullition of imagination or of 
passion, not sustained by the vigour of an extraordinary genius ; 
he is tempted to look out for the meretricious ornaments of sen- 
timent, showy but not substantial ; and of language inflated, but 
destitute of propriety ; and even, when stripped of their hollow 
pretensions, sinking to flat and uninteresting harrangue. 

There is a more moderate caste of eloquence, which, in open- 
ing the truths of the Gospel, clothes them with strength and per- 
spicuity of sentiment and of diction; and presents them, in an 
arrangement suited to the facility of apprehension, and to the 
gaining of the sanction of the judgment. Proficiency and per- 
fection in this, should be an object with every man, whose vo- 
cation it is to address an assembly. If he can rise to greater 
heights, let not his sufficiency be without its effect, But let him 
not be betrayed into an affectation of this, by an overweening 
conceit of his possessing of powers with which nature has not fur- 
nished him ; lest, like Icarus, with wings cemented to his person 
by wax, in proportion to the height aspired to, may be the ae 
sure of insufficiency of preparation for it. 6 

Such a false species of eloquence, is sometimes generated ee" 
the notion of accommodating to the bad taste and to the way- 
ward humour of a great proportion of hearers ; who, itis sup- 
posed, will lavish their applauses. on every species of extrava- 
gance, and of sound without sense. Now, setting aside, that 
such a sacrifice to the idol of popularity is not suited to the sa- 
cred character.of the clerical profession ; it is really the not 
doing of justice to men in the ordinary occupations of life. 
With some, indeed, in all the various grades of civil estimation, 
nothing can be too extravagant, and too contrary to good sense, 


C oy 

to be for a while captivating to their imaginations, provided it 
be recommended by exterior accomplishments of the speaker. 
But the satisfaction thus produced is evanescent, owing to the 
changing fancies of hearers of that description: besides, that 
they gradually feel the weight of more correct decisions, de- 
scending from persons, whom they cannot but know to be more 
competent judges than themselves. 

It is a more common error in young men, that they seize on 
an erroneously fabricated elocution, as what is to open for them 
the door to popularity. The word is here used, as applicable 
to speech and to gesture. There can be no doubt of the im- 
portance of such a management of these, as shall arrest and fix 
the attention of the people ; and carry to their understandings 
and to their affections, what possesses the character of instruc- 
tion, and that of persuasion. But, it may be aimed at by such 
mistaken efforts as must be disgusting to all persons, whose 
judgments and tastes have been regulated by common sense ; 
and will at last lose all its fictitious merit, even with those who 
are the most apt to be led away by what is addressed to the eye 
and to the ear. This cannot but be a familiar fact, to many 
who have been in the habit of listening to addresses from the 
pulpit, especially to those of young men, at and soon after their 
entrance on the ministry. It has been particularly offensive, 
when in the desk, there has been read the service, without a 
tolerable regard to propriety of utterance; and yet, on ascent 
to the pulpit, there has been affected the stand of a consummate 
orator, with modulations of voice and with variations of it, not 
in harmony with the sentiments to which they are attached; and 
with gestures perhaps more violent than becomes the pulpit; 
or, perhaps, with such a management of the arms, and of other 
parts of the body, as shows it to be acquired by private prac- 
tice ; and this often, without regard to the ordinary dictates of 
propriety, and under the government of an incorrect taste. 

Itis to be hoped, that at present, there can be no occasion to 
caution against the introducing of such grimace into the ser- 
vices of the desk; yet, it has sometimes happened, although 
seldom: and on such occasions, it has been not uncommon for 


( 48) 


discreet persons to remark, that it is sufliciently mortifying to 
listen to a fictitious oratory from the pulpit; the prayers, they 
have said, might have been left to their genuine purity and 
simplicity. 

It at least follows from these remarks, that previously to any 
extraordinary display of elocution, there should be the certainty 
of ability to read with distinctness, with grace, with due modu- 
lation of voice, and with freedom from every species of affecta. 
tion ; that with this preparation, there should be the determina- 
tion, not to aim at a delivery, for which there is not the furniture 
of natural talent; and that in the use of the measure of it 
furnished by nature, there should be strict care, not to offend 
against the laws prescribed by sound criticism; and especially, 
to abstain from a species of noise not suited to the sentiment ; 
or if suited to it, alien, with the sentiment itself, from the 
sanctity of the place. 

Thirdly. Let there be duly estimated the danger on the one 
hand, of a disposition to introduce into sermons, subjects of con- 
troversy ; and, on the other hand, of the avoiding of them to 
such an extreme, and on such mistaken grounds, as will be un- 
favourable, under some circumstances, to the sustaining of im- 
portant truths. ? 

If any subjects of controversy may be permitted to occupy 
a disproportionate share of the discussions of the pulpit, it may 
be thought, that they are those opposed to the cold pretensions 
of infidelity: and although a congregation, professedly as- 
sembled for Christian worship, ought, in charity, to be supposed 
satisfied with the grounds of their profession ; yet, it may be 
said, that as there may be with some, the danger of an aban- 
donment of them, favoured by the frailties of nature, and by 
the temptations of the world, there would seem propriety and 
use, in guarding against so great a calamity; not only when it 
comes into view incidentally, as will often be the case under 
some of the heads of more ordinary discussion; but in occa- 
sional developing the evidences of Christianity, or of a branch 
of them, and in their being the direct and the only subject, 


never however, without its admitting of a bearing on some re- 
19] 


ow 


( 10°5 


quisition of Christian morals, either for the renewing of the 
heart, or for the ordering of the life. Even to this point, the 
maxim of “ne quid nimis” is applicable. When it is consider- 
ed, that of the mass of a congregation, there will be a propor- 
tion, expecting what may be brought home to the conscience 
and to the affections; that there will be another proportion, 
who will be in need of alarms, sounding to them the judgments 
of God, on the sinful states in which they rest secure; and, as 
is to be hoped, still a proportion, whose attendance is with the 
hope of being confirmed, and built up in the obligations of their 
most holy faith; it must be of serious concern, to what extent 
there may be reasonable cause of complaint, because of the 
occupying of the time with matter important in itself, but less 
interesting to the great majority of the persons assembled, and 
less called for by their religious wants. 

If there ought to be this caution, in the statement of truths 
opposed to infidelity, much more should it be, in relation to 
differences subsisting between our Church and other bodies of 
professing Christians. There may be occasions, when one or 
more of the points at issue, may profitably make up the body 
of a discourse. Also, in the explaining of a passage of Scrip- 
ture, there may be perceived the opening of an opportunity of 
guarding against some error, or what may seem such, in deno- 
minations differmg from ours. What is now to be recommend- 
ed, is to avoid the doing of toomuch, or the being oecupied too 
often in this department ; and that on the same grounds as 
under the preceding head—its not being the best improvement 
of opportunities of Christian instruction and persuasion; and 
its being a reasonable cause of complaint, of disappointment, 
on the part of those who come with other expectations, and 
for the applying of what they may hear to purposes deeply in- 
teresting to themselves. 

At all events, in the discussion of controverted points, even in 
reference to infidels, and still more when there is a bearing on 
those who profess to worshipthesame God, thro’ the same Media- 
tor Jesus Christ; while there should be no hesitation to announce 
expheitly the truth, as it is conceived to be declared in Serip- 


toy 


ture, it should be exempt from indecorous and from reproachful 
language. We are enjoined in Scripture, in reference to unbe- 
levers, to be “ready to give to every man a reason of the hope 
that is in us, with meekness and fear.” Much more should the 
like tenderness be cultivated towards those who cherish the same. 
hope, although, as we think, disfigured by errors, perhaps the 
effect of education or of some one of the many ideal associa- 
tions to which we are all subjected by the many infirmities of 
human nature. There ought also to be an appeal to the genero- 
sity of the speaker, in the circumstance, that although, in the 
matter of his discourse, he may be legitimately availing himself 
of the privilege of his official character, yet there is a motive to 
forbearance from severity, in the recollection that he is protect- 
ed from contradiction by re ard due to the sanctity of the place. 

While there. exists the danger stated, there is the opposite 
danger, of being so sensitive to the feelings of those who dissent 
from the distinctive principles of our church, that such their dis- 
crepauicies ought never to be presented to congregational view ; 
which, we are told, should be limited to what are contended to 
be the only essential doctrines of Christianity, and assented to 
by all who deserve the name of Christians. In contrariety to 
this, it is here maintained to be inconsistent with ministerial fide- 
lity, to keep back purposely, any truth believed to be contained 
in Scripture ; although the time of propounding it, and the ques- 
tion of its pertinency are points subjected to the determinations 
of Christian prudence. With him who is delivering these senti- 
ments, there ought to be no hesitation to acknowledge, in refe- 
rence to matters at issue between us and other religious denomi- 
tions, that he has often heard them obtruded without necessity 
and unseasonably, and sometimes without decorum. But he has 
also found on other occasions, the workings of such a scrupu- 
lousness, as is never acted on with consistency ; and, in propor- 
_ tion as it influences, tends to the prostration of principles highly 
important to the ministry, and to the worship of the church. 
These should be maintained in proper times and places, in con- 
irariety to a species of accommodation, very different from the 
charity defined “‘the bond of perfectness,’’ and in another place, 
“the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.” 


It will not be a descending too minutely into the subject, if 
it should be remarked in the fourth place that a preacher, in ad- 
dressing himself to the understandings and to the affections of 
his hearers, (for it will be acknowledged, that at least some de- 
gree of attention ought to be paid to each)—there may be the 
danger of withholding from the one or from the other of these 
properties of our nature, a well adjusted proportion of his en- 
deavors. Instruction is to be presented to the former, and per- 
suasion is appropriate to the latter. 

From the pulpit, there is a field open to the preacher, for the 
impressing of the conviction of some truth, or of the obligation 
of some duty, or of the heinousness and pernicious consequen- 
ces of some sin. If he possess a tolerable knowledge of human 
nature, he will be aware, that the resting of these on the proper 
grounds of Scripture fairly and reasonably interpreted, although 
addressed immediatély to the head, is the expedient the most 
likely to find a passage to the heart. Even respect to the hear- 
ers, ought to guard him against giving an air to his instructions, 
of their being the dictates of personal or of official authority ; 
instead of inviting the sanction of the judgment in virtue of evi- 
dence presented. Now there is danger that a minister of the 
gospel, under impressions of what becomes him in this particu- 
lar, may occupy himself in ingenious reasonings ; perhaps for the 
sustaining of points, which have not any considerable bearings 
on the highest interests of his hearers; perhaps branching into 
subtleties too minute and too speculative for the gen:rality of 
them; and perhaps admitting no other improvement than that 
of inferences logically drawn, but not calculated to remove the 
part of our nature, of which it is said, that ‘‘ out of it are the 
issues of life.” 

On the other hand, when the body of a discourse is made up 
principally of an address to the affections, although bottomed on 
truths supposed to have the approbation of the judgement, it has 
very little chance of being operative. Perhaps this is owing to 
the pride of human nature; which is put into the posture of 
resistance, against an invasion of its independency : likening it 
to a fortress, which cannot be successfully attacked by open 


( 18 ) 


force, but may be approached by some covered way, or by au 
undermining of its walls. Of all the remains which we possess 
of successful eloquence, brevity is a characteristic ; and there- 
fore, it is an injudicious plan adopted by some ministers of the 
gospel, that in the conclusions of their sermons, they dilate 
diffusively on all the preceding heads of it; doubtless with the 
view of exciting the feelings of their hearers, which is not likely 
to be the effect. Perhaps, under each head, in its proper place, 
there might have been profitably introduced a sententious ap- 
plication ; when even this, and much more when one of greater 
length, is lost under the design not sufficiently concealed, of 
giving a movement to the affections. 

There is a way, far from being commendable, of cutting short 
all questions concerning the comparative space to be occupied 
by endeavonrs to influence the affections. It is that of the 
Antinomians, in what they censure under the name of the stalk- 
ing horse of application ; that is, by the offer of the mercy of 
God to sinners, without a knowledge of who are the selected 
objects of it, which they hold to be unwarranted. In this, how- 
ever contrary to evangelical beneficence, and however fatal its 
influence on morals, they do but make logical inferences from 
a theory held by them, in common with many others, who very 
sincerely declare their abhorrence of it, and their dissent from 
the wicked purposes to which it is consistently applied. 

To proceed to another source of danger. In the work of in- 
fluencing the affections, there may occur a question in regard 
to the motives of hope and fear, of the consolations of the gos- 
pel, and of its threatnings ; whether the one or the other of 
them should be prominently applied by the preacher, to the 
accomplishing of his purposes. 

It must be the most delightful to the feelings, to be in the act 
defined in scripture, ‘‘ a drawing with the cords of love ;” for 
the very good reason, that as in creation and in the course of 
Providence, the causes of joy are much more abundant than 
those which occasion pain; the same is true in the department 
of grace, which is more marked by unmerited beneficence, 
than by just severity. Perhaps there may be the further reason, 


( 14) 


that the reformation wrought by the former of these expedients, 
is the more likely to be lasting, and to clothe the profession of 
religion with a pleasing cast of character. 

Now, if any clergyman, influenced by these, and by the like 
considerations, should dwell on the mercies of redemption, and 
on the splendid prospects of which it is the procuring cause, 
rather and more frequently than on the denunciations of divine 
wrath ; this would be no more than what harmonizes with the 
general sense of the sacred oracles, and with the spirit breathed 
throughout them. Butif his favourite theme should be indulged 
in, at the cost of putting the others out of sight, it would be so 
far a falling short of the fidelity exacted of him, especially, as 
besides the clear denunciations of Seripture, there is no sin which 
can be his subject, without its manifesting of an inordinate 
desire, carrying its own punishment along with it, when the 
body shall have left its tenement of clay.. Against transgressions 
in the other extreme, among many reasons, there is the difficulty 
of knowing how far our passions may have their share of 
influence, in our invectives against the vices of our hearers, 
and in applying to them their appointed punishment. Cer- 
tainly in the denouncing of what is unequivocally threaten- 
ed, there is sometimes such unamiable feeling, and such intem- 
perance in language and in action, as show the mind of the 
speaker to be without the compassion which should mix with 
merited condemnation; and not in harmony with that property 
of the character of God, from which just punishment is de- 
nominated his “ strange act,” and he is said to be “ not willing 
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 

The only remaining point to be presented, is the possible 
difficulty of sustaining a correct estimate of the comparative 
claims of the desk and the pulpit. When the difficulty is stated 
as possible, it is not as existing in the subject, but as suggested 
by interfering errors, sometimes not easily combatted with 
success. 

The end of religious assembling, is for the worship of Al- 
mighty God, which is proof, that the due ordering of this, 


(vik) 


eught to be the principal concern of those who have the con- 
ducting of it, and the principal object of the attendants. There 
are many, however, who are ardent in their desires for the 
hearing of sermons; while by their late coming to the prayers, 
by the little interest manifested in them, and by contriving, in 
proportion to any influence which they may possess, to dis- 
pense with as much of the prayers and of the reading of ihe 
scriptures, as shall be thought consistent with decorum, they 
manifest an unequivocal symptom of incorrect views of religion 
generally. 

On the other hand, the prommency of what is tou ihe 
worship of the Church, is sometimes pressed in such a manner, 
as to disparage the other mean, appointed by our ms we 
Father for the salvation of mankind. 

Even of those who assemble in the house of God, if there 
should be none but those who engage in the appointed services ; 
none, who come from habit and to make a decent appearance 
before the world ; none, whose object is the display of person or 
of dress; none, capable of offending by levity and indecorum ; 
and none, who are leading lives in contrariety to religious and 
moral obligation; there would even then be occasion for dis- 
courses, adapted to the instruction of at least the great mass of 
the comers ; for the guarding of all of them against the tempta- 
tions by which they cannot fail to be assailed ; to ‘ provoke to 
love and to good works,” and to incite them to “go on unto 
perfection.” But, when there is contemplated the mixed cha- 
racter of every congregation, the probability that many of them 
are in states of undisguised sinfulness ; and the certainty, that 
many more are living in forgetfulness of God, and in indifference 
to “‘the things that belong to their peace ;” there cannot but 
be seen a vast difference between such a mixture and an assem- 
bly, Christian, not in name only, and accordingly, that what- 
ever might be proper in the latter case, it ought not to effect, in 
regard to the other, the mean prescribed by Divine Wisdom, of 
warning sinners to “fly from the wrath to come.” 

So long as it shall remain on record, that during the middle 
ages, there was the simultaneous growth of their corruptions 


( 1@ ) 
and decay of preaching ; it willbe an awful proot of the neces- 
sity of the latter; for the sustainmg both of the truths and of 
the morals of the Bible. 

What then is the estimate which an individual should enter- 
tain in regard to the two subjects ? It is, that the paramount ob-~ 
ject with him, should be a devout engagement in the devotional 
services of the Church; for the discharge of his debt of grati- 
tude to the great Bemg, who, although he “ dwelleth not in 
temples made with hands,” has promised his especial presence 
to those who assemble in his name, and further, as the emitting 
of that light before men, which is the likeliest mean to lead them 
to “glorify their Father which is in heaven.” But it is the car- 
rying of the preference too far, when it induces a light valuation 
of preaching replete with sound doctrine, and with adaptation to 
the character and to the spiritual necessities of the hearers ; an 
error which would be pernicious in the mind of any person, 
especially so in that of a minister of the gospel; as it would 
tempt him not only to be the less abundant in his labours, but 
to relax his endeavours to improve himself in the qualifications 
‘called for by the exercises of the pulpit. It would, however, be 
a mistake to infer that the use of the pulpit will be in proportion 
to the number of sermons from it. This is so far from being the 
case, that an extraordinary appetite for them, especially when it 
carries in quest of great variety, is seldom found in alliance ei- 
ther with an eminent adorning of the profession, or with a con- 
sistent and well digested theory of religion. It will probably be 
no slender evidence of a devotional spirit, if it cause an habitual 
attendance on the service of the church, when it is performed in 
a severance from the instructions and the exhortations.of the 
pulpit: a practice which we have inherited from the church of 
England, and which will always be cherished by many devout 
people, whose duties of life permit their withdrawing of a small 
portion of their time from their worldly occupations, for an at- 


tendance on the strictly speaking devotional services of the 
Sanctuary. 


Cy eer 
Our Young Brethren, 


There have been detailed to you, not for discouragement, but 
for caution, the dangers contemplated on this occasion. They 
might have been given in greater extent, or in a larger number 
of instances, had time permitted. Perhaps it may have been 
thought by some that there should have been taken a survey of 
all the leading points of Christian theology ; but while it is held 
that this is too extensive a ground for any tolerable degree of 
justice, it also occurs that such a plan would require a repetition 
of the same truths, in these our annual Addresses , that they are 
therefore, more suitably left to the reverend persons who are 
with you in the daily habits of instruction; and that in each in- 
stance attention should be exclusively invited to some one 
branch of religious consideration ; having, however, a connex- 
ion with every other. On this plan, he who now speaks has 
been governed in his four former Addresses ; not without a view, 
however imperfectly his purposes may have been fulfilled, to its 
reaching of the consciences, and its tending to a sanctifying in- 
fluence on the studies of his youthful hearers. 

On each of the occasions he has been admonished by his 
weight of years that it would probably be his last exercise of 
this description. At the present moment he has more cause 
than ever to listen to the warning voice of time, dictating to him 
the lesson of being found “ faithful unto death ;” in this, and in 
every other department of his official duty. To whatever fur- 
ther period there may be a lengthening of his life, he believes 
that the end of it, happen when it may, will find him cherishing 
this Institution in his regards; and, in proportion to what may 
remain of strength of mind and of body, zealously labouring for 
its success. To him, and to those who labour with him towards 
the same end, there will be a reward of our cares and our en- 
deavours in proportion as we shall witness the fruit of them, as 
on the occasion of our being now assembled, in the qualifications 
of the sons of the Seminary. 


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